I am a Cat Woman. My self-appointed mission in life is to save the feline world! To accomplish this mission, I get cats fixed. Perhaps my mission might be slightly delusional. This blog is a mishmash of wishful thinking, rants, experiences as I remember them and of course, cat stories and cat photos. I love cats.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Sometimes some of the people living nearby openly make fun of me as "the cat lady" and say other things. I love having no curtains and blinds that don't work so they don't close. But lately I have had a hard time dealing with the lonliness, criticism and also the financial problems, that have come with the high gas prices. I don't want people staring in my windows anymore. I'm tired of being made fun of. I have no allies.

Not since the military recruiters left. They were unholy and outrageous and nonjudgemental and defensive of me and we became friends.

I dream of leaving but I don't know how to make that happen. I'm envious of the woman who has been feeding the apartment cats. She's moving to Eugene, she tells me. She found a place to live that will allow her to have two cats. I know she'll be happier in Eugene. There is so much more one can do there, if one has little or no money. There is a great public transportation system, too, if you have no car, and she doesn't.

As for the others still there, she is determined not to leave them behind and find somewhere that will take them. There are only two she would need to place now--the black tame female and one of the two black males. She'll keep her orange cat and the other black male.

The other kitten will come here to join her sister eventually. And that is that. The rest have all been placed or are gone. Two are in my bathroom, but I got them tested at Heartland, have vaccinated them, and the calico teen is now very social. I work with her daily.

Poppa's president is taking two from here maybe by tomorrow, to work into one of the adoption groups she works with up in the Portland area. That will help some. I have no luck anymore finding homes and kitten season is about to hit. Dismal, man. That's all I can say. And depressing. I keep trying.

Click the post title to see hope in action--blue oil, produced with algae growth spured by photosynthesis and injections of CO2 from a nearby cement plant. The process depollutes, because it uses CO2 produced in the cement manufacture.

Could be ten years though, before it's ready for mass production. Watch out classical oil companies. The future won't need you.

Oil use has declined in the US over the last few years, I read.

That's attributed in part to gas prices and to people getting smart and buying higher mileage cars.

I'm tired of hearing presidents for decades promise to make the US energy independent. Meanwhile, China now produces high volume low cost solar panels. And the Blue Oil research is not in the US either.

We're bypassing opportunity, to fight in WA, over things like gay marraige and abortion.

Grants are being given out that are stupid wastes, like the $4.4 million given to OSU to research fat rural kids. Such money should be put where it can spur the future and the future is in energy independence--blue oil and the like.

If we don't, it will be produced in another country and we'll be dependent on that country.

Every region of the US should be able to produce its own energy, is my opinion. Oregon needs to get going on this. It's the future. And a cash and job cow we want to milk.

The people who had adopted Sage and Smolder were coming today to pick up Willow. But they indicated they would come about 11:00 a.m. or between 11:00 a.m. and noon. they were no shows and did not call.

I guess that is that.

I am disappointed, for sure.

Seems Safehaven was called by an Albany woman who went out and bought a trap to trap neighborhood cats because she doesn't want them in her yard. She'd caught one and wanted somebody to take it off her hands now. Probably was a neighbors cat. So what does Safehaven do? Safehaven gives them KATA's number.

Lame!!!!

Number one, Safehaven, educate the woman on the law. Number two, educate her on how to keep cats out of her yard. Number three: you are paid people, wtf giving out somebody's number who works full time, so she is called while at her own job, by this woman when you are paid people, getting paid to educate Linn County residents on just such issues. LAME!!!!! And LAZY!

I got called by a Eugene woman who wanted to know what to do with a stray cat, apparently pregnant, and tame. I asked if she knew I was in Albany? I asked if she read on my website that I don't take in cats from the public. I told her she could get the cat fixed, feed the cat, and try to find it a home, or she could take it somewhere, if she could find a shelter to take it.

I was e-mailed by an Albany man who claimed he lives in a house that came with a cat, from the former owners. He said the former owners have taken it to their new home three times and three times the cat came back. He says he does not feed the cat, a neighbor does, but someone let it in their house and now apparently it has ringworm. He said he had no money to take it to a vet and asked what he should do.

Huh? That's crazy. He doesn't do anything for the cat. He doesn't feed it or anything.

My response to him was that ringworm is self limiting and the cat will get over it and I'm not the money bags, the free everything person of Albany. It's also still an abandonment thing. The original owners certainly can keep their cat inside at their new place and then he won't be returning to his old home, if that's even true.

It is surprising to me, that already cows' milk in Oregon, Washington and California is testing positive for radioactive iodine. The levels are very low. For that to happen means usually the radioactive fallout is landing on grass or food the lactating cows ingest.

Click the post title to go to the article.

I would not have expected that to happen so rapidly.

The cancers after Chernobyl were mostly thyroid cancers in children. They were believed to be caused by eating contaminated food and drinking milk from cows contaminated with radiation.

If cows are ingesting radiation, means food crops will also be accumulating it.

So far, the good news is, the levels are very very low.

If they go up, could mean economic disaster for at least the three western states. We grow a lot of food here.

Nuclear power isn't safe. Because the companies that run the plants cannot be trusted to safely maintain them or to tell the truth.

Out I went, into my garage, confident, and yet, I had my pepper spray ready.

Nothing!

I searched high and low. This time, I knew where the torbi was, although I checked to be sure.

I figured it was going to be one of my neighbors' cats.

But then, I glanced outside from my window and spotted the perp. ON MY ROOF!

It was the white cat.

A dedicated effort at breaking into my cat yard was underway by the two cats from the next street---the white cat and the orange cat.

They know me. I got them fixed. Now they rarely go home. Home is two houses from me and a street over. They want into my cat yard. The next step from there is them in my house. They want it. I don't.

I didn't design the cat yard containment to keep cats out so much. Now, too late, I realize my mistake. There are lots of barely noticed owned cats around this area. They get bored. Bored cats in the hood are trouble! They lust after the life of my cats. They want it for themselves. So, they try to break in. And I try to keep them out.

My neighbors three barely noticed cats are constantly in my yard, too. Now the two houses down neighbors cats from one street over are always here, like it's some cat hang out, a cat bar, a cat mall, a game room.

Sage and Smolder came back home today. They hadn't seen them. I finally found them in the wall behind the bathtub. They had crawled in there, which was a nice cozy spot, through the hole where the pipe goes into the wall from the bathtub.

I think my mistake was sending off Smolder with the very social Sage. She hid with him to comfort him. Otherwise, she probably would have been out and about.

Anyhow, they're coming tomorrow to take Willow for sure, and either Valentino or Zach as the second. I told them Valentino would quickly adjust whereas Fat Zach would take a bit of time but would ultimately bond better and play more with Willow. So I hope they choose Fat Zach as the second even though it would be hard to see him leave.

I love Portlandia. I've never seen full episodes because I don't get cable. I watch clips of it online.

The clips crack me up. Click the post title and watch some.

Guess I must be a true Oregonian because some of the scenes do not seem that strange. The mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, appears in at least one clip. The mayor is played by an actor in the series. Adams appeared as his assistant. To see the actor playing the mayor of Portland sitting atop an exercise ball at his desk didn't seem that out of line. Must be uncommon elsewhere.

In another clip, the promoters of a Portland baseball team are meeting with the mayor to discuss the team but quickly divert into naming a bat then enthusiastically creating an animated series concept with characters like the bat and a mitt.

The hotel scene clip with guests arriving for a music festival is hysterical. The new hire arriving at the advertising agency for her first day is hysterical. The tryout for the baseball team clip starts me giggling until I sneeze. The meet your local chicken dinner clip rolls me onto the floor. The house sitter arrives clip is unbelievable and I know people like that.

I LOVE Portlandia. It captures the essence of the insanity of our state. Portlandia cracks me up.

Yes, it is fun to laugh at ourselves here in Oregon over Portlandia. But, don't laugh too hard at us, because every state and region are quirky and strange in their own little ways and could easily be spoofed too.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

My letter about Valentino, pretty much trying to find him a home, was printed today in the Corvallis Gazette Times. Click the post title to go to the letter.

I have not had any responses.

Meanwhile, his sore front leg, I thought and maybe was, caused by his fall off the bed a couple weeks back, has resulted in a knot on the bone just above his toes. It's below the joint. It is hard.

He walks on that leg but still sometimes favors it. He will hold the leg up if sitting upright. He jumps up onto couches and chairs and down from them and walks around on it. He can flex out his toes. It's the knot I worry about. He probably needs an X-ray.

My concern is if it's not related to the fall. What if he has bone cancer, is what I think about.

I have no money for an X-ray. I think an x-ray should cost $50 to $80. That is not the case. They're closer to $200. The vet I use in Wilsonville would charge $180 for the X-ray and $48 for an office visit. If there's something wrong, then you add on from there.

There is no way for small timers like me, without any money, to pay for vet services. There appear to be no options out there either.

No one I know of would ever think of disrespecting a vet's work. But the work of rescuers is not valued. People want injured or homeless animals saved. But that costs somebody and if nobody steps forward, is the lone little rescuer to go into debt for the irresponsible behavior of animal owners in their area? Plenty do.

There should be ways to recuperate costs, in fines perhaps, charged to animal neglecters and abandoners. I wish I could find those who abandoned Valentino and sue them for the cost of his care. That would be fair.

I do not know of one rescue that does not struggle with the cost of vet care. Outside of the breeders who often masquerade as rescuers, sometimes to get phony nonprofit status, the service of rescuers drastically helps communities.

We each do not live in isolation of the other. What you do and what I do affects others. When people do not fix their pets, their behavior ripples on, in offspring handed out, to cause massive suffering to cats and costs to others for decades.

Ok, trying to make it sound all noble and all, the need for help with rescued cat vet bills. All Mother Teresaeee. Want everyone crying and sending money now.

In reality, I'm no good at begging. I wish I could find a way to make the money needed. It's probably a nationwide need, but for sure a statewide need--money to use for cats and dogs in rescue who need vet care. We need a big fat fund to draw on. A really fat one. There are too many little people going into big debt to care for rescued cats. People like me. People like Poppa Inc.s pres. There are a lot of us trying so hard to make the world better, battered and broke as a result, while the assholes responsible don't fork over a fricking dime. Oh, now, get off your self righeous angry soapbox Jody right now.

That said, what to do about Valentinos' sore foot.

I guess I need a fundraising division of me. Money for vet bills.

Let's see. Money making ideas. Hmmmmm...... There will be the pot production and sale for cat rescue relief efforts. There will be the gambling division, which will run casinos and bookee joints and recruit sports players to throw games for cats. There will be the Prostitute Yourself for a Rescued Kitty division. There will be Cat Rescue Bank Robbers of America division, a selfless group who rob banks to give back to rescued cats. There will be the Mafia Cats, a group dedicated to exhortation (oh whoops, extortion I mean) to pay vet bills for rescued cats.

Ok, sure, that's all criminal endeavor. Criminals are too selfish I've always thought, robbing, theiving, stealing all for themselves. That is so flawed!

Extort criminals maybe for cash, for rescued cat vet bills.

What about this? Court and marry a vet? Or.....even sicker, kidnap a vet--force them to do procedures rescued cats need to live, like Xray Valentinos sore foot. I would not do that, ok. Just kidding around. Fantasizing. Make a good movie. Sure would. Pulp Fiction style.

Well, enough thinking for tonight. It's sicko that the only money making ideas I can come up with to help pay rescued cat vet bills are all criminal. Twisted!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Two more males from the same Walnut street location were fixed today. There is one more and I aim to get him. But at least these two big boys were fixed.

Last night, when trying to catch the third, I caught the brown tabby I caught before. I took him in a couple weeks back to be fixed. He doesn't know he's fixed yet and right after I let him out, the tabby on white long hair, the one I'm still after, got into it with him in the middle of the street. I didn't have my net along. IF ONLY!!!! They get so intent on fighting and facing off nose to nose, they ignore everything else. I could have netted him right there.

The neighborhood will be so much quieter when I'm done there. It already is. Takes about three weeks however for the hormones to fade from these big males after neuter and then finally they settle down.

I've gotten four females fixed now from that location, three of them pregnant, and now three males. Just across the street I got two males and two females fixed, too. Two blocks from there, I got another pregnant female fixed, a male fixed, and took two teen males to Heartland. So, in short order, just from a two block area, I've taken in 13 to be fixed and gotten two out of there permanently.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Sage and Smolder just got adopted by a couple of women who live in Monmouth. Yay!! Good luck to both of you. Of course it's a double edged sword, because I'm a worry wart.

But they seem like great people and I will hope for the best and am glad to have found a home for two sweet kitties.

However, I will be physically sick for several days. I just can't help it anymore. Adoptions cause me to shut down, physically and mentally. The stress of handing over lives to strangers....it's just too much for me anymore.

The big guy!On my chest.Big guy Valentino again, looking fluffy and angelic.Teddy, originally from the Corvallis homeless camp.Smolder, Sage's boy, stretching.Poppy, the 34th street torti.Poppy again. She's from the same complex as Valentino.And Poppy once again.Honey, from the homeless camp, cuddling with one of her buds, Brambles, from the HTN colony.Meesa, the young mother from 4th street, who had her second litter, which included Echo and Fantasia, in a utility room. The people who fed them then told me they gave a neighbor permission to trap and kill them. So Meesa, once fixed, didn't go back there.Zuli, from the Lebanon trailer situation.Sage, looking beautiful as usual.

I've been keeping a low profile. Stress nearly killed me a week ago. I think it was getting Whisper back from Heartland that was the straw that broke the camel's back. That combined with the constant demands from that apartment complex, of getting the cats gone, meeting the feeder's needs. Then my car broke down on top of it all. I only took in two of the apartment cats because someone in Portland, won't name names, said they'd take the torbi and two teen sisters. So I went to get them. Then she couldn't take them for some reason. That was a low blow!!

I finally got it through to the woman, I think, at the complex that the stress of dealing with that was killing me. She hasn't e-mailed in several days.

Then Whisper being returned by Heartland, because she got a spot of ringworm.

I got depressed. Still am. Tough to do this alone, day in, day out. It would not be hard, if I didn't have all these cats here to care for too, and also to attempt to rehome. It's too much to do both the roundup and care for all these cats here, on no money.

The most beneficial to cats is the roundup for fixing, the prevention of births. I wish I could stick with that. I am now severely limited because I have too many here. That's sad.

Friday, March 25, 2011

The earthquake and even the tsunami may pale in comparison to what is coming.

The news today was full of ominous reports of a possible meltdown of one reactor core, releasing plutonium, which is extremely dangerous in the radiation particle comparisons. One nuclear physicist claims if they must abandon the site because that reactor is releasing high levels of radiation into the environment, meltdown of at least two other reactors is likely also.

Claims of an event worse than Chernobyl circulate the web.

Meanwhile, here in Oregon, unbeknownst to me, until today that is, snow, falling in Pendleton, and even in Roseburg, contained oil. The snow left oily sheens on cars and windows. How could this be?

I wonder if the cause could be the oil refinery fire after the quake in Japan. Snow forms around particulates in the air and in this case, I guess it was oil particulates.

Where there was snow, at least the oil fell from the sky. Where there was no snow, are we breathing that in?

I think we've screwed our planet over fairly well. Will Oregon be at risk if one, two or three reactors are out of control in Japan? I have no idea. We've already had very tiny levels of radioactive iodine carried over. Plutonium is far more dangerous, I heard.

We often get winds off the Pacific here, right out of Asia. We've been the unfortunate recipients of air pollution here in Oregon from as far away as China and even Russia.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

My brother gave me the greatest gift for my birthday--something to play the ipod on he gave me a year or so ago. I couldn't play it, because I don't like ear buds. They blast the music straight into my head, too loud, too destructive to my eardrums, and also, there's the small ear problem.

Yes, I have tiny ears. Earbuds do not fit my tiny ears, even if I wanted to use them and destroy my hearing.

When I was kid, I got made fun of for my tiny ears. People would want me to pull back my hair so they could see them for themselves. Nowadays I couldn't care less if people make fun of my tiny ears. When you're young, it's all about conformity, wearing the right clothes, being cool, and differences become the object of ridicule.

When you get older, you don't give a shit.

My older brother and his wife met me in Salem the day Nemo was adopted. I had him along. They took me to lunch. My brother had been very mysterious about having a gift for me. I am like a little kid when it comes to gifts. I like to rip off wrapping paper. It's the idea someone went to all that trouble just for me.

Makes me feel special.

I was awed by this gift. I haven't had music in my life for awhile now, except for one tired out CD, the only one my car CD player doesn't eat. I've played it solid for over a year now when I'm driving. I sing when I'm stressed and singing relieves my stress. Maybe it's like a cat purring. I can't carry a tune but I don't care. I don't care when people passing me stare either.

You gotta do what you gotta do. And I gotta sing.

I had been dismayed when a favorite rock fm station switched over to hate radio talk. We sure don't need more of that out on the airwaves. Left me, until I find another station with music I like, with that one CD for music. Sure I get tired of it, but that's ok.

Everything's ok when I sing.

Likewise when I dance.

I like to dance. No, I love to dance.

Now, with the ipod and the thing that will play it, I am back to dancing nights here. With the wood stove gone I have the space to dance. The cats stare disgusted but I don't care.

Off with the TV, on with the music!

I still can't play anything but the one CD in my car, but that's ok. I can play the ipod music here. My brother recorded it off his computer, which is a mac. I can't transfer it to mine because mine is a plain old PC and wants to reformat the ipod if I plug it in, which would erase all the music my brother put on it. There's no plug in on my car stereo for an ipod.

That's all ok.

It's my look forward to getting home thing now, to turn on the music at night and dance.

I rented Restrepo. It's a documentary following one group of soldiers for a year in Afghanistan, in a remote valley outpost known for rugged terrain and Taliban attacks.

It does show what the war is like. They shoot at people far away mostly but not always. One soldier, from Oregon, lamented if he killed one of them he'd rather they be overrun, so he could see he was killing them, not be shooting from a distance.

Once they were overrun when out on foot patrol. One soldier was killed and two wounded. When another soldier saw the body of the deceased, he ran to it sobbing his eyes out. You don't think of soldiers sobbing. It wasn't like in the movies where everyone is hard and dead to the killing.

After a chopper blew up an Afghan house and the patrol soldiers then found injured children afterwards, the commander tried to put an optimistic face on it, for the camera, about how they just killed five bad guys, but he didn't seem to even believe himself. He also had become frustrated when the Afghan civilians didn't seem to understand their endeavors were going to make life better for them. In the meeting with tribal leaders, he finally retorted, "Do you understand I just don't give a fuck?" Or something to that effect.

The soldiers were tasked with endeavors beyond their means. In the end, most just wanted to come home.

It was sure different than accounts given and movies made about World War II, with the body counts in that war and atrocities committed and seen. The soldier reactions I guess were not what I expected by comparison. I don't know if soldiers now are different than they were then.

Restrepo, the young man killed, for whom the movie, and a base perched higher on a mountain for better leverage on the enemy, were named, was so full of life and humor when shown in clips at the beginning of the movie.

Now he's feeding worms.

Most wars are pointless and waste young life.

Libya wouldn't be at war right now if its people had not allowed a crazy man to be their leader. They did nothing too long.

I still don't know why people fighting dictators the world over cry out for help from America. Maybe it's because we answer the call. Sure, America has its problems, but countries call on us for help for a reason.

Restrepo and your buddies, I don't know much about what is going on in Afghanistan or why we are there anymore. Maybe you didn't either. You just went.

Maybe one day we'll have a better world. Doesn't come easy though. Doesn't come just by hoping it will come.

Safehaven made a killing on a fundraiser in Lebanon for their voucher program. $20,000!

That is a lot of money.

It's great for them.

I do feel even more inadequate, since I can't seem to raise a dime in this area for Poppa Inc., even to pay my gas to take cats to be fixed. I hope we get a grant from Albany this year. If we don't, it's probably the end of efforts in this area. We don't have any manpower to do fundraisers. Or community support to do it.

Poppa began as a state wide assistance program to help those who fell through the cracks. The board ran a nursery to raise funds, making their money rather than getting it from fundraisers or grant writing. That was because the founder is a master gardener and that's what she knows--plants. She doesn't know grant writing or fundraising.

When Recycled Gardens closed, she intended to shut down Poppa Inc. as she never intended to keep it going longer than ten years. She and the other two board members work their own jobs to support themselves. They don't have time to fundraise or write grants either.

Poppa Inc. remained viable probably only because I went into a deep depression when I was informed they were going to close. I think they kept it going for my sake, which I appreciated greatly. Moving to Linn County was something I'd never planned on. But when I moved here, a few years ago, when evicted in Corvallis, I was not prepared to face how bad the situation here was for cats. Nothing could prepare a person.

The streets over run in cats, entire neighborhoods over run, even my own yard at my new rental over run. If I had not been able to use Poppa funds, I would have gone nuts, to see the misery everywhere for the cats and not be able to do a damn thing about it.

I'm no fundraiser either. I came here with a dozen cats and now have 40 and still can find no volunteers or routine donations for Poppa Inc., for transport gas, of cat food for adoptables here, or help from any other groups finding homes. Time, limited money, exhaustion all become factors. I was dismayed with Safehaven's blind eye to the problem. I'm glad they're finally getting on board with some spay neuter money. I wish they and all shelters with paid staff would be far more aggressive at solving the problem.

With that amount of money, Safehaven should be able to go at spay neuter in this county full force. I hope they do, for gosh sakes. They need to. They're all paid there. They've got the money. No excuses.

I think I'll refer everyone outside Albany city limits in Linn County to them, since they have the money now, $20,000 for spay neuter, which is a lot, and Poppa is running real low and I don't have money for gas.

It's quite amazing actually to think what three people, who are not even paid, who live way up in the Portland area, have accomplished for cats in this area. Yeah, I have done an amazing job here, working my butt off for nothing, living on nothing like I do. I know I live like a ghost here, overshadowed by the bigger shelters with their publicity machines and paid staff.

But I have a wry little sense of humor over that. It's a private joke, between me and the cats, a secret we share, and they know well who it is who comes to their aid.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Torbi from apartment complex, now in my bathroom.The calico, daughter of the black and white now at Heartland, from the Albany apartment complex. Heartland has an Alsea stable taking the black and white, once she is over a cold she caught there. She was handed over to a Corvallis woman by the woman who feeds the cats at the apartments in Albany. However, the cat bit her new adoptor and behaved feral. The cat was taken to Heartland on a bite hold, although she was fully vaccinated when I got her fixed last August at the Neuterscooter. The black and white had two kittens at the complex, whom I caught to be fixed in November. The calico is now here.Willow, the orange medium hair female I trapped in my yard, whom Heartland took, then returned, citing ringworm.Valentino!

I am trying hard to find cats homes. I paid for a 30 day ad on Oregonlive. You get to post 8 photos and continually edit, all for $15. I got an ad there once before that resulted in two cats getting homes.

However, I also paid $6 once for an ad in a McMinnville paper, out of curiousity, and got two cats homes that way. That was cost effective.

I like to track where people find out about a cat here up for adoption that they then do adopt. By and large, fliers have been the most productive at finding cats here homes, and the most productive fliers have been those posted at vet clinics.

I have found cats homes through the free ads allowed once monthly in the local paper, but the last two ads I've run have resulted in only one call. However, that call produced a home for two cats, two of the four cats abandoned in Millersburg.

I have found homes through craigslist ads, but that is a very very labor intensive endeavor because of the high number of e-mails I get through ads that are spam or mean nasty people, venting their personalities on anyone and everyone, or people faking that they want to adopt a cat for sport or because they're nuts or people responding who would not provide good homes. Craigslist is the wild west. Criminals love it.

If I have the time to sort through the good, the bad and the ugly responders from a craigslist ad, I post. But time is something in short supply in my life. I also now have a firm policy that I deliver the cat to out of area homes, where I cannot arrange someone else to do a driveby or home visit.

So it's flier time. Even though Valentino is still limping, he could go to an experienced adoptor. He needs a quiet home.

I'm not so sure Willow, the orange cat I trapped in my yard, really has ringworm. Sure looked like it, but that spot, crusted and the area now is clean and shiny, like a scab fell off. My Woods lamp burned out and I can't find my little tiny fishermans' blacklite I got at a Walmart.

I bathed her in antifungal and have been spraying the spot, alternativing between betadine and antifungal cream. She's in a cage. She does not like being in a cage. My bathroom is occupied still by the pair from the Albany apartment complex.

My neighbor says I should just let her loose, since I trapped her in the yard. But I'd still be feeding her then. Better to try to get her out of the area and into a home.

I'm already feeding the white cat. Now I think she's been abandoned if she was ever owned by the people the neighbor thinks sort of owned her. I see her crawl out from under the other neighbors shed in the morning, like she is having to live now under there, then comes to scrounge in bits of food in my driveway.

I wish there was somewhere to take strays in Albany. You have to pay $50 to take even a stray in to Safehaven, if they'll ever take a cat. That's what my neighbor says and she volunteers there, so she should know.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

I thought I'd have at least three to take up. Maybe more. That Walnut St. guy was supposed to be trapping for the males. Lost cause I think. He's had my traps a long time. If he hasn't caught them by now, he won't. I left him a message I want to come pick up my traps.

The female who went up is from a house on Vine St. where I've gotten cats fixed before. She asked me to rehome the two long hair boy kittens. They are at Heartland, who immediately agreed to take them. They're on no kill hold. But, if they have to return, for any reason, like if they pop out with ringworm, they'll go back to where they were born on Vine street.

They're really sweet little boys.

So their mom was fixed and she won't pop out more. Their sister lives two houses down from where she was born. I gave that woman my card and urged her to get the cat fixed or let me do it.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Nathan Winograd is again, AGAIN, voicing his opinion on the President of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), calling her the butcher of Norfork. Click the post title to go to his blog entry.

I agree with him.

I battled it out with her on the same subject, by e-mail, expressing my disgust with Peta hypocrisy and laziness, and for their enthusiasm for killing excess shelter animals without any call or action for change. They also run at least one shelter and actively kill most of the animals that enter. Peta employees have been known to take animals from vet clinics, and tell the clinic they will find them homes, only to kill them and dump their bodies in a dumpster.

I think they are attention whores and I think they're lazy, and refuse to dig in and do the hard work which is required to stop the killing of animals in shelters.

Isn't it fun to protest though? Isn't it fun to ride naked through the streets in protest of wearing fur? The cameras roll and people stare. Perfect for attention seeker personalities. Meanwhile animals languish and die in shelters, often at the hands of PETA.

Winograd goes farther, calling them butchers who actively seek out dogs and cats to kill. He calls Peta's president "disturbed".

I agree.

Peta has provided publicity on many issues that needed light. Now Peta needs light shined on them and their very dark side.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

There is good news. I believe the headlight problem is simply both bulbs are low beam fried.

I found out where both fuse boxes are on the car and pulled every fuse and checked them. I found some gross dust issues up under and into the steering column, peering into cracks and crevies with flashlight and mirror. It was interesting exploration.

Then the Walnut street cats man stopped by and offered to check the bulbs for me. He was able to shake one headlight bulb while the switch was turned on and get it to blink on for a moment and then, with a magnifying glass, determined likely it's burned out. They're really hard to see to tell one way or the other.

I had not considered the bulbs blowing because I felt it unlikely both would go at the same moment. I hope that is the problem. It's a cheap fix if it is.

I was not aware that apparently thousands of people thought this weekend a huge earthquake would strike the west coast of America. An earthquake expert who allegedly predicted the Christchurch quake is to blame for people stocking up on everything from water to cat food. I was in the dark.

The predictor's theories involve the Pacific Ring of Fire active volcanic zone and it being a very connected ring. When one point slips on a ring, the other weak points of the ring will also slip eventually.

He predicted it would happen this weekend I think in part because of the ultra full moon, causing heavy high and low tides, theorizing the relative weight of the water on the fault, relating to tides, high and low, would "float" the fault zone making it more likely to slip. He also supposedly detected more electro magnetic activity on the western coast of America recently and also cited the massive fish kill off SoCal as evidence of natural disturbances occurring in the sea, that we can't see but that affect sea life.

I'm glad there has been no big quake. I heard about it only when chatting last night with a cat person in Portland, who got e-mails from others about it, and had gone out and bought tons of extra water and cat food.

I was in the dark over the alleged danger and I like that I was. I don't have the money to overstock anything, so being in the dark was bliss.

I got my chores done. I went and fetched the ringworm ear orange girl from Heartland, whom I'd trapped in my yard a few weeks back. I sobbed like a baby in their euthanasia room, out of exhaustion. I don't like to cry in front of people, so, when I could not contain my tears, I tried to back into a corner for some privacy.

They were very sweet to me, gave me a bag of cat food, even microchipped the orange girl before I left with her.

I stopped and got a cheap phone. It will take 12 hours to charge so 12 more hours phone free at least. The other phone I ruined last night by kicking it, when frustrated, didn't really work well anyhow. Sometimes I could hear on it, then suddenly the volume would drastically decrease until I would hear nothing.

I had been resorting to Google Talk, instead, which is clear as a bell by comparison. The phone is a fixed place ancient thing I"ve had probably 15 years. I dug it out of an old box when the mobile phone I had died.

I like not having a working phone.

Lastly I stopped by to feed the apartment cats. As I got out, across the street, I saw a man in camo with a compound bow pulled back. From my distance, I couldn't see what if anything he might be shooting at or even if he had an arrow loaded up. I did not recognize him.

I was in no mood to witness violence. I stood out in the middle of the street and stared. He stared back and finally said "Can I help you?" That is not something a whacko killer would say. I then responded, "What are you shooting?"

He said he was just testing the bow, and, from a distance, indicated no arrow in the bow. I felt like an idiot.

His father came out then, made comments about the stray cats. I had only met his wife, when getting area strays fixed. She had told me the renters who lived at that house that they own and had rented out, were responsible for some of them. They had unfixed cats and left most behind when they moved.

Still defensive, I said something back. I asked if he was complaining about the strays. He said "yes", that they were going under his house and that he didn't want to close it up because he didn't want them to die under there. He indicated the apartment complex, the big problem, and said "Some people should just not get pets." He asked what group I was working with in this area.

I said I was with. I said "I'm by myself, trying to stop a problem too big for me, even in Albany, and I'm killing myself in trying to do it all alone." I also said the whole area is infested with people who don't fix their pets then leave them behind like trash.

He said "Good luck." I said "Thank you." They seem like a nice family.

I'm glad his son with the bow pulled back was not the latest mass killer out there. But.....had he been, would he have gotten any further than me?

Not today.

Sage is leaving next weekend. I'll miss her, but I'm happy she is getting a home.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Heartland called to say they found a spot of ringworm on Whisper, the young tame orange kitty I'd never seen before, and trapped in my yard I guess it was aobut three weeks back. She never entered my house, since I had colds going on inside, and went right to Heartland after she was fixed, spending the night in my car.

I have no idea where she came from. She was desperate, starving and out in a huge storm.

Now I have to go get her. Where will I put her to treat it? Hell if I know.

The good thing is Sage is likely going to be adopted by a Eugene woman, still ironing out details of the "when".

Heartland has agreed to take the tame black female from the apartment complex. I worry however. If she is living under the building, in that wet environment, what if she, under the stress of shelter life, pops out in ringworm? Then I have to go get her and keep her here til she's over it. I end up with more and more. So I'm not so sure now.

Ringworm is terribly common in moldy wet Oregon and lies in wait in piles of leaves, straw, under buildings too.

Things have gone slightly worse. The woman in the apartment complex caught the calico's sister. That's one of the pair in my bathroom. I tried to explain to her that Keni can't take them right now, and the other two are in my bathroom and how stressed I am because they won't eat and I'm worn out, all that. She doesn't care about any of that, wants her needs met. Then she tells me she hasn't fed the cats in days, not since last Wednesday when I poured out food there. I became so distraught and distressed, I put my phone on the floor and stomped it with my foot.

It's my stress levels.

I was going to go over anyway. I wanted to feed those poor cats. I had already warned the woman when I arrived not to talk to me because of how upset I am with her. She is on SSI just like me. Same income.

I get in my car, and it starts and all, but the headlights won't come on. The parking lights work, but not the headlights. I sit out there in the car, like I can magically make it work for an hour. I try to check fuses but I don't understand their little abreviations and could not find one labeled for headlights.

I give up in the end. I only have a few minutes left on the tracfone and no landline phone now. That's probably a good thing.

I knew something would go wrong with the car. It was a matter of time. The thing has 200,000 miles on it. I just wasn't prepared for the actual moment, when it came, that I couldn't use it. I hope it's something I can figure out. I have no money. I have no credit card.

After I took out all the bricks and mortar the decorative wood stove sat upon, the subfloor was exposed.After removing the brick against the wall, a white dirty square remained. I painted it, but used the wrong green, spackling nail holes. I then searched for the right green, amongst old paint cans and when I could not find unused paint of the right color, I went searching for the color patch strip so I could get a quart. I save every color patch except, apparently, that one. So I pulled a small surface piece of drywall off, painted the right green, and took it to Home Depot, for a match and he did his best.Cut and laid a piece of OSB over the sub floor, nailed it down.Painted the floor OSB, for moisture protection and repainted the wall, where the bricks had been, a shade of green closer to the shade on the rest of the wall. However, the match is not exact.Looking good! Laid the vinyl sticky back vinyl squares over the spot.Good job!I've still got to bolt a round decoratively painted board or metal piece over the hole where the stove pipe inserted into the ceiling, then through the attic and out. Removing the entire pipe from the roof and attic is a contractor job. In other words, Mr. Brother the Contractor job.

I wonder if I could install a fan in that hole, to either push or pull air in or out? That's a novel thought.

I still must cut the baseboard piece and replace it, too. And get rid of the stove. I don't believe the man who had offered to haul it off will really do so. I think I'll try to sell it.The interesting discovery is that in 4', the subfloor loses 1/8th inch, slanting downwards towards the front of the house. In 32 feet, that means the house would be an inch lower on one side than the other. The photo is fuzzy, but is of the east edge of the four foot square, after installing the 1/2 inch OSB and nailing it down. It is flush on the west length, and an eighth shy on the east length. I should have compensated, I guess, but I just checked the flush side, when nailing it in, then when I noticed, I thought, I don't care.

Friday, March 18, 2011

I've been off my game since the cat in the rafters caper and the removal of the decorative only wood stove project. I have failed to round up cats in the numbers I am known for rounding up. It's not that I haven't tried. The people I am targeting, seven females between two households, don't answer calls or knocks on the door or notes left.

Every one of those females will have kittens. Those kittens will be handed out to their friends, who likely will not fix them either.

The other people, for whom I've already taken in four cats, caught another Thursday evening, a torbi. I took her up today to be fixed. She was pregnant, the third cat from them alone who has been pregnant.

I waited out her fix in the rest area, but did not get a chance to sleep.

Poppa was contacted by someone in Yamhill county with 20 to 30 cats, can't pay a dime towards fixing them, they claim, and who suddenly, now that there are 30, are concerned, when the females are pregnant. I was ticked to hear this. At an average of $50 per cat, if half males, half females, fixing 30 cats costs $1500. That's a lot of money and does not count expenese incurred if they also will not do the labor themselves, the transporting and trapping, which requires gas money, bait, and flea treatment.

Put them on payment plan, I say.

I should try to write a grant for money for Poppa Inc. Nobody else has time.

I've had to give the apartment pair sub cu fluids. They're a little strange. They let me pet and hold them, but still aren't eating unless I force feed them, which I'm doing--adult cats! I think they're just scared, especially the one who got loose, then me trying to catch her and all, frightened the calico teen still in the hutch, and they lost sleep.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Apparently the overwhelmed Japanese government has not been quite truthful about what is going on at the failing power plants. There was this, on a yahoo news site, "A United Nations forecast projects the radioactive plume from the Fukushima facility would reach the Aleutian Islands on Thursday and hit Southern California late on Friday, The New York Times reported."

That is scary. Also, the American government wants American citizens out of Japan.

This may only be the beginning. The news is so contradictory I don't know what is truth and what isn't.

This expert says "don't worry" while the next says "worry". Our Oregon health department head was really stern in an interview, stating firmly that potassium iodine tablets are not necessary while the mayor of S.F. and the US secretary of health say it's not a bad idea to be prepared and have them on hand.

Radiation wipes out white cells, making a person prone to infection, and it wipes out bone marrow. The most common cancers caused years after exposure are thyroid cancer and blood cancers, like leukemia. Also, lymphoma. In acute cases of radiation sickness, you bleed to death because your blood won't clot.

These are really heavy tiny particles and that's why they work in X-rays. Organs and bones and tumors slow down the particles, producing white space on the X-ray. If you get bombarded too long, by these heavy particles, there's damage done.

It's wierd to think about, isn't it? The idea particles can pass right through you, like you're not there? Reminds me of how we're all vincible, pretty much compacted light rays, but if you had better vision, you'd see all the spaces in between. We're not really solid objects.

My heart goes out to the people and animals of Japan. I wish we could spin time backwards and go down a different tangent. My heart is tight for the west coast of America and all places in between. I don't know or not if the plume is coming, because I don't know who to believe. We might be a huge population in need of wig and hair piece donations real soon.

I got the torbi out of the rafters. I netted her with my age old home made fishing net. She and the calico are now both in the bathroom.

The black and white female, likely mom to the calico, might be sister of the torbi, was handed out to a Corvallis woman by the woman who used to feed the apartment cats without my knowledge two weeks ago or more. When I was over at her place, to pick up the torbi, I pressed her on who had adopted her and how it was going and she finally showed me a disturbing e-mail in which the woman expressed anguish over the cats feral nature and nervousness and suggested she might take her to Heartland. She had pressed the woman for records on the cat, too. I had those records, including the fact she had been vaccinated when I took her and four others, in the first cats I got fixed there, to the Neuterscooter.

I e-mailed Heartland then, yesterday, asked if she had been brought in, attaching her photo. She had indeed been brought in and had been on a bite hold! If only that woman who handed her out had told the woman the truth about her history and if she wanted vet records, my number. I don't know why she didn't. The cat wouldn't have needed to be on a bite hold since she had been vaccinated.

Anyhow, I was going to go pick her up, but Heartland now thinks they have a home for her as an office cat at an Alsea area stable. I hope they confine her and not just turn her loose. I asked Heartland if they would ask the people, who sound extraordinary, if they'd take one or both of her relatives, now here, in my bathroom. I hope they will. That would be spectacular. The torbi is tame enough to be adopted as a house cat. She once was owned. The black and white one too. There are too many assholes abandoning pets in this area.

I got two responses so far on my ad for Sage. One sounds pretty good, single middle aged woman, wants a nice friendly cat. She's still deciding I think, and hasn't filled out the adoption application. The other, after initial response, hasn't e-mailed back but she may not have had time.

I'm picky on homes. I want the cats indoor only now. Too many outdoor cats just disappear, killed by cars, dogs, coyotes, poisons, whatever. I tell people straight up I am looking for stable homes without addiction issues, big anger issues, or frequent partying in the home. But it's still hard and you never know.

Nemo was doing good last I heard from his adoptor. They're wonderful people. If something happens bad, it won't be for lack of trying or love on their part. That's all I can hope for. I've let him go. People are always free to return a cat.

It's late and I've worked my butt off today. But my day wasn't over. Exhaustion would lead to a mistake, a call to the police, and ultimate embarrassment.

My brother had told me months ago we may as well get rid of the decorative wood stove as he will never be able to get it approved on his insurance for use.

Yesterday and today, I caught a bug to get it done. That thing must weigh 300 or 400 pounds. The first problem was disconnecting the stove pipe itself, which wasn't hard, but freeing it was. It is severely rusted and full of gunk. Got it off, then began the arduous task of sliding that monster stove out through the garage. Surprisingly, it was not that tough. It has round knobs on the leg ends, that easily slid across the vinyl flooring and even the garage concrete.

What to do with it now? Not a problem. I went over to get my carrier at a house where I'd gotten cats fixed and that guy said he had a hoist, for engines, and a pickup and would do it, probably this Saturday, haul it to the recyclers.

He might also take some of the other junk that needs gone: an old dresser I took apart, thinking I could use it for a raised garden bed frame, still might, but maybe it should go, and a piece of hexagonal furniture I got at Goodwill and remodeled into a litter box hider. It's shot and needs to go too.

Then came the task of breaking up a four by four square of brick laid under the stove and the same square footage of brick against the wall behind where it had been.

"Well, this won't take long," I thought, overconfident as usual. Wrong.

I thought the project would be easy. I thought it would be quick. I thought it would be relatively pain free. Wrong.

I seriously underestimated the amount of brick. And drastically underestimated the amount of mortar.

I began. My tools? A screwdriver and a hammer. I broke them free, then pounded off the mortar, then hauled the bricks out to my yard and set them in the ground to form more walkways in my soggy backyard. I hauled the broken up mortar out to the side yard and filled in spots with the light colored pieces.

Over and over again, until my back whined and my leg nerves sang and my neck ached and my arms were scratched and bruised.

I got the floor layer out yesterday. Today, this afternoon, I went after the wall section.

The wall section was harder. The bricks each contained 8 holes through which mortar had been poured to make it solid. There were tie downs sealed into the bricks with mortar then nailed to the wall, to keep the whole thing from falling over.

My glove got a hole in one finger. The relentless pounding free the bricks of one another, then of the mortar pieces, then filling the bucket and hauling it out became painful. Each step became heavier. I drank lots of water.

At 9:30 the woman called that she had the calico kitten. I had to go get her. The woman complains if I don't come right away, if the cat meows, anything. I went over and got back, and was trying to clean up and do all the rest of the chores. After the living room was strewn with rubble most of the day, it didn't look too bad comparatively.

And then..AND THEN...sitting here, had just fed the apartment cats out in the garage and dumped the last bucket of bricks. I had meant to give them water, was about to do that when distracted, wanted to eat, was starving. I put some noodles on the stove and came in to check e-mail.

Suddenly, from the garage, I hear the cars' horn go off.

I froze, spine went tingly, a million thoughts raced through my mind. Who had honked my horn?

I didn't think I'd locked the outside door on the garage, since I'd still been working.

I grabbed my pepper spray, but my hands were shaking. I tried to calm myself. I turned the light on in the garage from inside the house and tried to see in from the kitchen window but I couldn't.

I pulled out my tracfone and tried to think of someone I could call, just in case there was someone out there, and so I would have someone on the phone as I went out. Then I saw the time on the phone. OMG, it was after 1:30 a.m.

So I called the police. I was talking to the operator, asking her if she'd just stay on the line as I went out into the garage when the likelihood of the culprit struck home: a cat.

She had officers already on the way, in fact, they were here almost instantly, outside my place, hands on their holsters. It was cool!

I told them quickly I thought it might be a cat. The neighbor man's cats are always getting in my garage. I saw a possum running out back, who also sleeps sometimes in my neighbors' garage, and didn't want the cops to see him. I was ashamed, for some reason, that there was a possum in my yard. These thoughts come with exhaustion.

The other people's cats, from the street over, are also always trying to get into my garage, the white cat and the orange and white cat. Then I remembered the torbi and the calico. Then I remembered I'd fed them then was going to give them water. My heart fluttered. It was one of them.

The officers rang my doorbell. They'd looked through my garage door and seen nothing and wanted to come through my house into the garage. I cringed. I knew there would be comments about the cat numbers.

There were, but they were nice about it. One officer said, "How many you got here?" I said, "I don't know, this is a cat rescue." They saw the garage cat run and said "That's cool," which made me feel less like a crazy cat woman.

I tried to motion to the blank square of white on the otherwise green wall to say I'd been doing a lot of work in here today, but how would they know I'd removed a wood stove and 32 square feet of brick and mortar. It would have been a great excuse however, for my appearance and the relative mess. I say relative because despite my exhaustion I'd cleaned the house up fairly well after the wreckage of the day.

There was nobody in the garage, thank goodness. But by now, I knew!

The moment they left, I checked the torti, calico cage. The torbi was missing and two of the clips were not clipped. That was my dead brain worn out mistake.

I searched for her and she's up on the wood near the rafters. I'll get her in the morning.

I felt guilty wasting the cops time. In my exhausted brain, I wished there had been someone in there, so I wouldn't feel so stupid now. No, I don't really think that, I'm too tired to think at all. Going to bed. I couldn't even set a trap properly to catch the on-the-lam torbi I'm so tired.

I wonder if it will be in the crime watch section of the paper.

"An Albany resident called police stating her car horn had mysteriously honked and she feared someone was in her garage trying to steal her car. When officers arrived, they determined the culprit to be a cat. They refused to arrest the cat, who had retreated to the rafters, citing limited jail space for feline offenders."

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Calico teen, fixed in November, now here, waiting for somewhere.Tame torbi, from same location where they are no longer fed, now in my garage. I took her to the Neuterscooter to be fixed last August. I took five from that complex that day to be fixed. Since then, I've gotten 8 more fixed there. Bad bad place for cats. People abandon them like they're nothing.As everyone who knows me knows, I need some adoptions! And I have some great cats here waiting, like Sage, Dickens, Smolder, Zach, Echo, Fantasia, Teddy, the list is long.

It's getting longer. The apartment cats, that are no longer being fed, unless I do it, are in trouble. Poppa Inc's president thought she could take the torbi and the two kittens I got fixed in December, now teens. So I have the torbi now in my garage. And just now, I picked up the calico teen.

But now they can't go up to Beaverton, because the group she works with has stalled out on adoptions, so they'll have to stay in my garage awhile, waiting. It's overwhelmeing.

Valentino, the Beat up old street warrior stray, is doing just fine. He's no trouble at all and seems to have been accepted by the other cats. His hurt leg, from jumping off a counter, is getting better and he's starting to grow hair back. He's a lover boy, that is for sure.

So, adoptions? I need them. I listed Sage again in Eugene this time. I think I should rename her. Maybe I'll name her Nemo! When Nemo was here, I got inquiries even from the east coast. Had to be the name.

I was supposed to take up some cats to be fixed today. Four females from the same household. But they never called back. I was to pick them up Monday night. Why in the world would you not get your cats fixed, if it was free to you, and you didn't even have to transport them or provide a carrier, just make the call to come get them? A household nearby still has four needing fixed that they feed out back, three males and a little female. They have my trap, but I got no call that they caught even one. It is frustrating sometimes.

There was another household who wanted my number, which I gave them, because they had three in heat females needing fixed. They have not called to get that done either. Why not, I wonder.

Those 8 females if not fixed will pop out pregnant soon, if not already. If they have even four kittens each, that's 32 more cats born, to be handed out free, to go on to be dumped, or to breed more themselves and to compete, for homes out there, with the likes of Sage and Zach and all the rest here waiting. Like so many other cats wait. And wait....

Monday, March 14, 2011

A melting core nuclear reactor is now releasing radiation in levels dangerous to human health, according to Japan's own prime minister. Even plant workers were evacuated, leaving 50 behind to still try to contain the out of control reactors. There are now at least four reactors in partial or full meltdown. If they breach their steel containment canisters, the unthinkable becomes reality.

After one, then two, then three, and now four reactors' cooling systems failed, we were still told they'd not melt down. But they are melting down. We were still reassured by countless experts on national TV no radiation would escape. Now that too is happening.

My personal reaction is: Don't believe industry paid scientists. My personal meltdown is partial but my core is getting hotter. Not just over this, the nuclear industry apparent national news lies in plain sight, over the possibility of radiation release, but over lots of other same cases, where we've been long duped and lied to.

Two men were on KGW this evening, talking about how we should have changed our energy policy long ago, manufacturing cheap solar panels for every house in America and plugging in our cars, because it costs far less per mile to run on electricity than on gas. We've talked these issues to death for decades and done nothing. Now the energy industry here wants to go nuclear, when we could still go with these cheaper cleaner safer alternatives instead. Who is running the discussion that then forms policy or lack thereof? They need dismissed of their mouths which are running on green fuel all right, greenback fuel that is.

The news also stated higher than normal radiation levels are now being detected in Tokyo, too.

How have we come to this, that people are grabbing up Iodine pills at pharmecies here, fearful a radioactive cloud will smother Oregon if the winds come across the ocean from Japan towards us, here in the northwest. And they could blow it this way.

Air quality stations are checking for radiation levels in Oregon, from air blowing in off the ocean. This is some brave new world.

The experts again are saying "no need to worry about that". And we're supposed to believe them. I don't. I have betadine scrub. It's a form of iodine. Guess I could coat my throat with that. Thyroid cancers from radioactive iodine exposure take usually 20 to 30 years to show up. The thyroid takes up iodine and if iodine is attached to radioactivity, that's the danger and I guess that's what they use or something in reactors.

I'll be dead by the time I'd get cancer from radiation blowing out of Japan now of something. Old age. I'm not going to worry about a radiation cloud. It's one of those things I won't lose sleep over because there's not a damn thing I could do about it anyhow.

If I had kids, I'd be getting some iodine pills for them.

But don't take them. They're yukky and can make your kids sick on their own.

They're telling people to stay in their homes to reduce exposure within 19 or 20 miles radius of the reactors in Japan. Radiation particles penetrate almost anything though. When I read up on nuclear dirty bomb shelters you could build for yourself, online, the articles say you got to have 16 inches of mass between you and those particles. 16 fricking inches of the most dense material you can find. Lead is nice but who has that much lead? Or steel?

And I heard the reactor containment vessel itself was only six inches thick of steel.

We need teensy teensy little insect baseball batters, who can step in, pinch hit, and knock every gamma particle back out into space that heads our way. Maybe they're beta particles. I don't know. I never studied nuclear physics.

Japan's third hit, the man made sector of the disaster, might end up the deadliest.

In honor of Petfinder.com's Adopt the Internet day tomorrow I am going to post photos of every cat I have here. Most are up for adoption, although I get very few adoption inquiries. Can't hurt to post their photos.

In addition, if something happened to me, the cats here would need instant help in placement. Plus, there's the earthquake factor. If Oregon experienced a terrible earthquake I'm not so sure this house would survive it. It's old. There are big old trees in the back yard that could topple and destroy the house. The containment might be breached by an earthquake and cats get loose.

So, since I have not had the money to get them all micro chipped, their photos will be stored here, for time. For help, finding them homes now or in the event, as we all do one day, I meet my fate. And for help finding them, should disaster strike.

These are the four cats I count as mine: Vision, Miss Daisy, Dex and Electra.Vision, elderly Corvallis river cat. Long hair black and white female. Loves Panda and Solomon, who are also long hair black and white, which is sort of strange. Do cats segregate by color? Vision is over 16, funny, has had many teeth pulled, likes having her hair clipped in the spring and is a true feral to everyone but me.Miss Daisy is a seven year old muted calico and completely deaf. She can be extremely loud and HATES having her fast growing nails trimmed. Prone to mouth and tooth issues, has few teeth left. Is delightful, must be indoor only, loves other cats once she gets to know them, prone to outbursts when hairball clogged, loudly races around some nights playing, screams in delight when I come home. Must sleep on your face!!!! Every cat here loves her, and wants to be next to her. She is an eternal optimist. Gets defensive and scared during vet visits (because she's deaf).Dex, elderly short hair black tux female, (at least 12) benign in nature, easy going, hates being closed in due to her history. Has been abandoned three times. Has chronic herpes which led to alleged near kidney failure, from a cold and dehydration, but bounced back. Likes to sleep next to me, purring loudly. Fantasia loves her. Dex and Electra have always been friends.Electra, my elderly brown tabby female, (12 years old) who was Hopi's best friend, before Hopi died. Electra came to me after I pulled her out of the main electrical wiring at an FCCO clinic in Salem. She bit me through the thumb in the process, so had to be in rabies quarantine. So she came home with me. She is originally from a large colony of lookalikes in Silverton. Electra needs to nurse nightly on my sleeve or all is not right. She still goes on tears, where she cannot contain her energy, racing around wildly. She can be grumpy when hairballs clogged and her nails grow quickly and she hates when her nails catch on things. Electra loves Miss Daisy.

The following are cats who have been here awhile although I cringe to call them permanents:

Panda, Long hair black and white female, originally from Lebanon, now 5 1/2 years old. Solomon is her brother. They love each other. Panda is shy to people, likes to sit next to me but only lets me pet her from her back side when she is faced away from me. She is best friends with Vision, the true feral former Corvallis river cat and with her brother.Solomon, a long hair black tux male, with a speck of black on his nose. Solomon is Panda's sister, very benign and easy going, although pretty much feral and only because of my time limitations on handling them. Panda loves to play, likes being brushed when I corner him to do it, and clipped come spring. His best friends are Comet, Vision and Panda, his sister.

Comet--Six year old short hair white and black male, raccoon like black mask, five inch crooked black tail. Comet was one of 16 kittens I took out of Heatherdale trailer park when I first started working that situation. He loves other cats, loves me, loves to be petted and cuddled on the bed, but not on my lap. He will resort to bullying other cats if he does not get enough attention, but wants to make friends with them, especially the big males. Comet's best friend was Cattyhop, before she died. He adores Miss Daisy and Dex.Shaulin is a strange but interesting little cat. She is almost two years old, will be two this summer. She is part Bengal and part Abyssinian. She has been tried at two homes, but cries constantly and is overjoyed when she returns. Bengals are that way, attach to one person and are fiercely attached and loyal. Both her brothers were adopted. But she wants me, and follows me even with her eyes, when I'm in the house. She likes attention, playing, being held when I force it, by closing her in the bathroom. Would be easily worked with if someone had the time, to "refocus" on another person. Shaulin sometimes bullies cats here, like Calamity, but only when Buffy or Mops, my persistent bullies, bully her. She also bullies if she doesn't get enough attention from me. Same with Buffy, Mops and Calamity.Poppy, sweet gorgeous torti, abandoned as kitten with her mother, on 34th street, same apartments Valentino came from. Poppy is now four years old. I was going to fix her and return her, but she began loudly howling in the trap. I couldn't take her back to live under that disgusting apartment building. She likes to sit on the back of the couch and chew and bite on my hair. She likes being petted and held, is not as aggressive about requesting attention as my attention whores, so gets left out sometimes, but loves attention once you focus it on her.My beloved in secure Peeman Sam, who likely is a permanent due to his habit of marking anything and everything, should he get a whiff of an unfixed male, roaming outside, or, when I recuperate male cats in my garage. He is athletic and loving, funny, can be loud outside, when the neighbors' free roaming cats are bugging him. He will cry high pitched incessantly in the cat yard, when feeling falsely threatened by the neighbors black tux neutered police cat male, who free roams and is barely noticed by his old man owner, so he has issues. Sam is one of those treasures, despite his annoying habit. He has however alerted me to countless males outside my house, by his pee marking start up, causing me to set traps. I've caught 25 now, most of them big males. They get fixed! I have to fix anything that comes into my yard, with a cat like Sam here. I don't know how old Sam is. I have had Sam four years now I think. He was abandoned in Millersburg along with about 14 other cats and was an adult then.Oci was also abandoned with Sam in Millersburg. The difference is she was kicked out as a kitten, so isn't as tame. I didn't place her as a feral because at the time, she had a severe eye infection and the vet advised long term treatment which I did for her. She was then so utterly outrageously happy to be here I lagged at even putting her up for adoption. She is not tame to other people initially but warms up very very quickly, if someone sits down with a cat toy and starts flipping it around. Oci is now four years old.Gretal, feral torti, dark, small, abandoned by someone who could not get their teens into Safehaven, then dumped them out on Highway 34. I saw them when driving highway 34. Gretal and Hansel, her brother, were walking shoulder to shoulder, bracing themselves against freezing wind, right along the highway. I came back that night, to see Hansel in the dark in the grass out off the highway. I thought he was alone, but when he moved, Gretal was underneath him. He was shielding his sister from the brutal freezing wind. I spent three nights camped out along the highway in a howling freezing windstorm to find and catch them. Hansel got a home. Gretal remains. That was five and a half years ago. She was four months old at the time. How time flies. She is probably a permanent. She acts feral but isn't once I have her in the bathroom with me. She worships me, is about all I can say and probably is permanent here as she would be scared to death without me, her security blanket.Tweetie came here three years ago, along with 11 other cats from an old woman who fed strays at Columbus Greens trailer park in Albany, then died. Family asked me to take the cats, claimed they'd donate and help me find them homes and did neither. I found homes for ten of them. But not for Tweetie and her sister Button who are beautiful cats and mostly stay out in the cat yard, coming in at night and to play.Button, Tweeties' sister, from Columbus Greens trailer park, about three years old, very bonded as sisters.Mums, medium hair muted torti, from the Lebanon Shovel Killer Christian neighbor colony. These were a group of strays from the area fed by an old woman who wrote to the Corvallis paper, telling the story of the strays, how a neighbor offered to kill them all with a shovel. That neighbor is a loud Christian who plays in a Christian church band, hence the colony name. I ended up taking in 12 of those cats. Three remained until Matilda recently got a home. Mums and sister Tugs still remain. They've been here three or four years now and were about 8 months old when I brought them here. They're delightful but now don't get as much attention as they like because of attention whore cats here.Tugs, sweet short hair young torti, about three years old, daughter of Matilda, who was recently adopted, sister of Mums. Tugs loves attention, shy at first, and is mischievous.Angle, very long hair black and white female, abandoned as a kitten with her mother and sister, up at the cemetery on Scravel Hill. Very horrible, to see them sitting in the parking lot up there, when I was driving by, dazed looking. I spent Halloween night there at the cemetery mainly to protect Ghosty, her sister, who had run when I walked up to them. I did get Ghosty that night finally. I did not think a kitten should be alone in that area in the night, with coyotes everywhere near. I would not leave her to face that night alone. Angel is doing fine, must be clipped springs due to heavy soft undercoat of hair, and actually loves being clipped. She is black and white but has one small faded brown spot on her face.Feather is a short hair sleek large gray tux female I trapped as a kitten at the rest area north of Albany where she had been dumped. I trapped her inadvertently during a week I spent nights there, searching for a lost Siamese. It was Christmas. I saw some strange goings on at that rest area during those long freezing nights. I never expected to trap a starving kitten, that's for sure, but my goodness was she ever desperate! Feather is long and lanky and gorgeous and now over two years old.Mops is a white and black young male with anger issues, like his sister, Buffy, below. They are not friends. Before their amiable brother, Doc, was adopted, they were friends and part of what I called "Sam's Clan". They hung out, all three of the siblings, with Sam and adored him. I found them nearly dead from starvation out in Dead Car Field, a grouping of old decaying cars and vans behind three houses in the BS colony. The BS colony was a group of over 100 cats, living in and around four messed up households on a dead end road not far outside Albany. Nobody did anything about the issue, but everybody blamed each other while they sat on their hands. The Jefferson vet asked me to help and later apologized profusely for doing so. But somebody had to do it. I have nightmares if I think about it much. I have three cats here from the BS colony. Mops, Buffy and Shady. I think I might have gotten $40 total in donations for months of effort, heartbreak and output of money to help that ungrateful bunch of people. Mops still loves Sam, has chronic herpes, but only outbreaks occasionally. All the BS cats have chronic herpes and ringworm. Mops will bully if he does not get enough attention. His sister will also.Buffy, from Dead Car Field and the BS colony, found as a nearly starved to death kitten, at that god awful place. I can't describe it much because I still don't want to think about it.Shady, in foreground, Buffy in background. Shady is a pale orange and white female from the BS colony, now four years old. She has chronic herpes and could not be adopted out as a result. She is also slightly cross eyed. She is mischievous and starts screaming if she even sees me coming towards her with eye meds, even if I hide them. Slightly a drama queen, very funny, too! Probably like it or not a permanent due to her health issues.Calamity loves attention. She's not quite two years old and a muted torti from Lyons street, born to an abandoned female who is still fed over there (and fixed of course). Her sister got a home, her brother disappeared before I could find him, as a kitten and Calamity is still here. She likes to play wildly and would love a home where she gets personal attention but would be shy at first.Jade, the young mother tossed out of a car, most likely, on Conser Drive in Millersburg, because both front feet are splayed out and the Neuterscooter vet said likely they had been broken at some point. She had kittens in a dirty garage corner. I'd helped those folks get about 14 cats fixed before. They didn't want her, didn't want to take care of the kittens either. I held out, didn't want to take on more here, finally just went and got them all. Her kittens got homes and Jade did not. Jade is three years old or so, not sure now, all black, very sweet.

Zach, Teddy, Starr and Honey, photos below, are all originally from the 52 cats I caught and had fixed, through Poppa Inc. funds, from the Corvallis homeless camps. Myself and Keni, Poppa's president, took out in all over 35 of the cats. Keni took in three, one of whom, Trudy, remains with her. Zach, big fat black friendly attention whore male, a delight most of the time, a pain when he absolutely must have attention NOW, and I'm busy. I don't know how old he is. He's been here now a year and I trapped him for neuter, the year before that and he was an adult then.Starr, is an unusual looking beautiful brown tabby girl, two years old now almost, who loves other cats, is shy at first of new people, and loves to play.Teddy is very friendly, but might initially be shy, but that doesn't last long. He loves attention, loves other cats, loves to play, is Starr's brother. He's a neutered brown tabby.Honey, sleek small athletic gray tux female from the homeless camp who loves almost every other cat and had been adopted out once, only to be returned because she hid and was so lonely for her friends. When she was returned, and let out of the failed adoptors carriers, she literally ran in circles for joy, then went and touched noses with pretty much every cat here. I was unbelievable to see and astonished me to realize how much they miss their friends, when adopted out.

Meesa, Fantasia and Echo are from 4th street in Albany. That couple feeds strays but has never helped in catching them to be fixed. I believe I've gotten about 25 cats fixed in that location alone. Then last summer the old man tells me a neighbor wants to trap and kill the cats left and he gave permission. I could not believe it. I had just netted Meesa, a feral young calico and her four kittens in their utility room. I couldn't take them back. The two boy kittens got a home. Fantasia and Echo haven't yet. Meesa, though originally feral, is taming down.Fantasia, a fantastic and quirky female, now approaching a year old, who loves fat Zach!Echo, Fantasia's sister, also fantastic.Meesa, the young mother of Fantasia and Echo and half feral.

Then I have Sage, and two of her original four boy kittens, Dickens and Smolder. All five were abandoned in Lebanon, alive in fleas, and unwanted.

Sage, the beautiful mother, abandoned in Lebanon, alive in fleas when brought to me and soaking wet, as she and her boys had been confined in carriers without litterboxes, so they were hosed down before people brought them to me, to be fixed.Smolder, whose brother Simba recently died of a combination of a very bad cold, dehydration and a heart murmur.Dickens, Sage's other boy teen, still here, now approaching a year old. The fourth kitten, Shaggy, was adopted.Valentino, a long hair orange tabby older sad shape male, from 34th street, found there, same place Poppy comes from, now clipped, neutered, bad teeth pulled, and still recovering from all his ails, content to sleep on my bed, recently strained a paw jumping off the bathroom counter.Slurpy, year old torti, gorgoues, super friendly, had herpes, from Rock HIll Colony where I got 44 cats fixed and took 18 kittens out.Starry, another sleek friendly year old torti, only she is from N. Albany. Peko and Nemo were her brothers, now both adopted out, Nemo just recently. All three kittens were born to a mother cat long fed as a stray up there. Otherwise educated population in that area, but nobody took time to get the strays they fed fixed.Brambles, from the HTN colony (Hate Thy Neighbor) in Albany, lived on a couple of streets where no one fixed their pets, vicious dogs free roam and kill cats, and that was another place I'd rather try to forget. He won't ever go back there. I hope I never drive those two dead end streets again either. The memories of suffering overwhelm me. Brambles has chronic herpes.Zuli, the young Siamese mix female from the Lebanon trailer colony. She is vibrant happy and healthy, loves other cats and people, once she knows you..

I can't find my photos of Hairy, the feral from Corvallis, or Mooki, a sweet gray and white male from Spicer Drive, so I think other than those two, I've posted everybody. I'll get new photos of them.

40 Cats Here. I'm also realizing, when listing them, many are not exactly young.

Of all those cats here now, the only ones I had when I moved to Albany: Dex, Miss Daisy, Vision, Electra and Comet. That is kind of sad, isn't it? Of those, the only cat who came from Corvallis was Vision, my ancient river cat. Comet and Miss Daisy are both originally Albany unwanteds. Dex was originally dumped in Dallas. Electra was unwanted in Silverton.